What led adolf Hitler to order German submarines to attack amrican ships?

Answer 1

America's support of the allies led Hitler to attack American ships.

Answer 2

Hitler did not order German submarines to attack American ships until immediately prior to the German Declaration of War on the United States on December 11, 1941 which followed the Japanese attack on the United States by Japan on December 7, 1941.

Despite the German announcement on January 30, 1941 that any ships (of any nationality) bringing aid to Britain would be sunk, Hitler did not give orders to attack US ships at that time. Although German submarines occasionally attacked US ships prior to the German Declaration of War, these were not a direct result of Hitler's orders.

After the start of the war in Europe, the neutral United States had begun some measures to help Great Britain (and other Allies) in their war with Germany. These US efforts increased as Hitler conquered more & more of Europe. By January 1941 this US assistance against Hitler had reached "all efforts short of war" status within the US government. Hitler was waiting until the Japanese attacked the US, before he would order an all-out campaign against American shipping.

Below is a list of significant events for US involvement in 1941:

Ø 10 January 1941: FDR proposes the Lend-Lease Bill (HR 1776).

Ø 29 January-29 March 1941: ABC Conference-American, British & Canadian military leaders meet secretly in Washington to discuss coordination of a common war strategy, in the event that the US enters the war. It is agreed that Germany would have to be defeated first (among the three Axis powers). Also the US will provide assistance to the Royal Navy in the Atlantic Ocean immediately.

Ø 30 January 1941: Germany announces that ships of any nationality bringing aid to Great Britain will be sunk.

Ø 1 February 1941: US Navy authorized to gradually increase crews of warships to full wartime strength.

Ø 11 March 1941: Congress approves (& FDR signs) the Bill that authorizes Lend-Lease Aid proposed by FDR. This is considered by many historians as the end of official neutrality.

Ø 15 March 1941: FDR's national radio address that announces "the end of compromise with tyranny".

Ø March 30, 1941: The US seizes any Axis ships in US ports.

Ø 31 March 1941: US Military technical team arrives in Greenland to determine the feasibility of bases there.

Ø 10 April 1941: US destroyer Niblack on "neutrality patrol" rescues survivors of a U-boat attack, and depth charged an underwater contact near Iceland.

Ø 11 April 1941: FDR announces that the Pan-American Security Zone is now extended 300 miles east from 60° to 26° West-Longitude.

Ø 12 April 1941: US troops arrive in Greenland.

Ø April 1941: US Lend-Lease aid begins (including that to China). Initial priority is to Great Britain & Greece.

Ø 25 April 1941: FDR announces the indefinite extension of the Atlantic Neutrality Patrols.

Ø May 1941: One quarter of the US Pacific Fleet is redeployed to the Atlantic to help with the convoy protection duties. The ships redeployed are one aircraft carrier, three battleships, four light cruisers, and seventeen destroyers.

Ø 6 May 1941: US Secretary of War Stimson advocates US Navy protection of British supply convoys.

Ø 21 May 1941: Unarmed US merchant ship Robin Moor en-route to South Africa & Mozambique is stopped & sunk by German U-69 (torpedo & guns) about 700 miles off the west coast of Africa. The merchant crew is given food & directions by Germans. This is the first US merchantman sunk by a U-boat in WW2.

Ø 24 May 1941: US Navy PBY search aircraft assist the British navy search for the German battleship Bismarck. Two days later, American Navy observers on two British PBY's spotted the Bismarck.

Ø 25 May 1941: German Navy Chief, Admiral Raeder warns that US escorts of British ships would be considered an 'act of war'.

Ø 27 May 1941: FDR declares an unlimited national emergency and calls upon all Americans to resist "Hitlerism".

Ø 28 May 1941: FDR proposes the repeal of the Neutrality Act.

Ø 5 June 1941: US House Appropriations Committee introduces largest US Army expenditure bill since WWI, at $10 billion.

Ø 12 June 1941: US Navy Reservists called to active duty.

Ø 14 June 1941: FDR orders the freezing of all assets in the US of Germany, Italy & occupied countries.

Ø 16-19 June 1941: US State Dept. orders the closure of all German & Italian consular & tourist offices in the US (by July 10th).

Ø 20 June 1941: FDR denounces the sinking of the American merchant ship Robin Moorby the Germans as an 'act of piracy'.

Ø 22 June 1941: Germany invades the USSR. FDR had warned Stalin beforehand, but Stalin trusted Hitler.

Ø June 1941: A US construction company begins building US Naval bases in Northern Ireland & Scotland. The British have initiated the work using $50 million of lend-lease funds from the US.

Ø 28 June 1941: A major German espionage ring is broken-up by the FBI. Thirty-three people arrested over a sixteen month period.

Ø 4 July 1941: FDR in an Independence Day radio broadcast warns Americans that the USA 'will never survive as a happy and prosperous oasis in the middle of a desert of dictatorship'.

Ø July 1941: US troops & aircraft are sent to replace British troops in Iceland.

Ø 15 July 1941: US Naval base is established at Argentia, Newfoundland.

Ø 7 August 1941: US Congress approves extension of National Service from 12 months to 18 months.

Ø 9-12 August 1941: FDR & Churchill meet on board British & American warships at Argentia, Newfoundland. Strategy is discussed & the "Atlantic Charter' is signed that formalizes the cooperation that is already underway.

Ø 4 September 1941: US destroyer Greer engages the German U-652 with depth charges after the German fired a torpedo. The Greer had been directed to the U-boats location (west of Iceland) by a British aircraft.

Ø 7 September 1941: US merchant ship Steel Seafarer is bombed & sunk in the Red Sea by the Italians.

Ø 12 September 1941: US Coast Guard Cutters seize ex-Norwegian trawler Buskoe in Mackenzie Bay, Greenland. The trawler was actually a German radio & weather station.

Ø 16 September 1941: The US announces that it will provide escorts for ships carrying lend-lease material out to 26° West-Longitude.

Ø 17 September 1941: US allocated $100 million to the USSR for the purchase of war materials.

Ø 27 September 1941: The first US Liberty Ship, Patrick Henry, is launched in Baltimore.

Ø 9 October 1941: FDR asks Congress to repeal Section 9 of the Neutrality Act, to allow US merchant ships to be armed against "the modern pirates of the sea". Congress will approve his request on October 17.

Ø 16 October -1 November 1941: US Navy destroyers escorting Atlantic convoy use depth charges against U-boats daily.

Ø 17 October 1941: US destroyer Kearney is attacked (but not sunk) by a German U-boat off the coast of Iceland, while escorting a convoy. 11 US sailors are killed.

Ø 19 October 1941: Unarmed US merchantman Lehigh is sunk by German U-126 off Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Ø 25 October-8 November 1941: US Navy taskforce of one CV, one BB, & 11 other warships screen convoys to & from the Mid-Ocean Meeting Point (MOMP).

Ø 28 October 1941: US Navy Oiler Salinas in a convoy is torpedoed by U-106 about 700 miles east of Newfoundland.

Ø 28 October 1941: US Navy destroyer Anderson made sonar contact with U-boat and depth charged it (possibly sinking it).

Ø 28 October 1941: FDR approves the Congress's appropriation of an additional $6 billion in Lend-Lease Aid to Britain & the USSR.

Ø 31 October 1941: US Navy destroyer Reuben James, on convoy escort duty west of Iceland is sunk by German U-552, with the loss of 115 sailors.

Ø 31 October 1941: US Navy destroyer DuPont, on convoy escort duty is attacked by a German U-boat. The torpedo misses the ship.

Ø 4-6 November 1941: US Navy warships search for a German surface raider, but instead find & capture a German blockade-runner Odenwalddisguised as an American merchant ship Willmoto.

Ø 6 November 1941: US provided USSR with a $1 Billion interest-free loan.

Ø 10 November 1941: US Navy escorts, for the first time, a British troop convoy from Halifax, Canada bound for the Far East.

Ø 11 November 1941: US offerd lend-lease to the Free French.

Ø 11 November 1941: US Navy authorized to attack any vessel that threatens US shipping.

Ø 13 November 1941: FDR announces that US merchant ships carrying Lend-Lease cargo to Britain will be armed.

Ø 17 November 1941: US Navy escort aircraft carrier Archer is the first of 38 escort carriers to be transferred to the British as Lend-Lease.

Ø 25 November 1941: US troops are sent to Dutch Guiana to protect bauxite mines.

Ø 2 December 1941: US tanker Astral is sunk by U-43.

Ø 3 December 1941: Unarmed US merchantman Sagadahoc is sunk by U-124 in the South Atlantic.

Here is what Hitler's declaration of war said:

"The of the United States having violated in the most flagrant manner and in ever-increasing measure all rules of neutrality in favor of the adversaries of Germany and having continually been guilty of the most severe provocations toward Germany and since the outbreak of the European war, provoked by the British declaration of war against Germany on September 3, 1939, has finally resorted to open military acts of aggression.

On September 11, 1941, the President of the United States publicly declared that he had ordered the American Navy and Air Force to shoot on sight at any German war vessel. In his speech of October 27, 1941, he once more expressly affirmed that this order was in force. Acting under this order, vessels of the American Navy, since early September 1941, have systematically attacked German naval forces. Thus, American destroyers, as for instance the Greer, the Kearny and the Rueben James, have opened fire on German submarines according to plan. The Secretary of the American Navy, Mr. Knox, himself confirmed that American destroyers attacked German submarines.

Furthermore, the naval forces of the United States, under order of their Government and contrary to international law have treated and seized German merchant vessels on the high seas as enemy ships.

The German Government therefore establishes the following facts:

Although Germany on her part has strictly adhered to the rules of international law in her relations with the United States during every period of the present war, the Government of the United States from initial violations of neutrality has finally proceeded to open acts of war against Germany. The Government of the United States has thereby virtually created a state of war.

The German Government, consequently, discontinues diplomatic relations with the United States of America and declares that under these circumstances brought about by President Roosevelt, Germany too, as from today, considers herself as being in a state of war with the United States of America.

Answer 3

America's support of the allies led Hitler to attack American ships.